Parents go nuts over peanut ban

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, September 10, 2003

[JohnHuang2]

An elementary school's reaction to one student's allergy to peanuts has parents complaining about "Nazi-like" peanut police searching their children's backpacks.

Angry parents packed a parent-teacher meeting last night at Valle Verde Elementary School in Walnut Creek, Calif., to protest the school's new "peanut reduction policy."

Under the policy, kindergarten classrooms and a special playground area have been designated "peanut- and tree nut-free zones." Students and visitors are required to wash their hands. Backpacks and lunch boxes are searched and peanut products are confiscated.

The policy is in response to lobbying by parent Leora Cope, whose 5-year-old son's allergy is so severe that even peanut butter residue left on the playground monkey bars could send him into anaphylactic shock. Cope's family demanded the Mt. Diablo school district accommodate their son under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the federal regulation known as Section 504.

The Copes had wanted peanuts banned from the entire school campus. The reduction policy was adopted as a compromise.

The district also hired a health aide to spend 30 hours a week training staff members in the use of an Epipen, an adrenaline injector that assists people who go into anaphylactic shock.

"Everyone's going to do the best they can to keep him safe, as they would any child," district spokeswoman Sue Berg told the Contra Costa Times, pointing out that Valle Verde's policy is less restrictive than others. "There are whole schools that have declared themselves peanut-free."

But parents questioned why hundreds of children must lose the traditional lunchtime staple over one child's allergy.

"If their child has such severe allergies, I suggest that they home-school their child," the local paper quotes parent Carol Gross as saying. "I would like to know what this family does out in the world. They expect over 600 families to conform to their unfortunate situation, not to mention the cost of the already financially suffering school district to have a nurse appointed solely to attend to the needs of one child."

Some parents are considering keeping their kindergarteners home from school for a day to demonstrate their displeasure over the nut ban.

Parent, Amy Casey, has started a protest petition to promote "dialogue" with the district.

"There have to be reasonable accommodations," Casey said. "[But] they're searching my kid's backpack. There's no reading specialist, but [they hired] a 30-hour-a-week aide who's a nurse?"

"What we're talking about is life or death, not hives," countered PTA president Kim Moore. "For this year, we have this little person who needs us to take really good care of him, and there's plenty of case law out there."

[blackdog]

Chicken pox party anyone? I'm not against microbes and viruses, I just prefer to keep them to a schedule.......

[Publius6961]

We pulverized this nut case yesterday, but thanks for the update.

What do you mean by this exactly?
You mean on the other thread?
Or has the school rescinded the moronic decision?

[RoughDobermann]

LOL!

[Politicalmom]

It was someone who sent their kids to school sick who gave my children some nasty bug, then they came home and gave it to their newborn sister, who gave it to my husband, who then missed a week of work. Not to mention Mommy getting so sick that she had trouble nursing everyone else.

[ridesthemiles]

Kudos for stating this so well!!!

[mtbrandon49]

Yeah, I went through that yesterday. You would be surprised how many freepers were sympathetic to the minority dictating to the majority.



http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/978851/posts

[csvset]

That evil bastard Mr. Peanut, always grinning.

[The Shootist]

How did you get all those real Dollar$ to be the same size as the Sacka-ja-wee-a?

[ridesthemiles]

There WERE ventilators 30 years ago.

[wku man]

Exactly. So, because one kid out of presumably hundreds has an allergy to peanuts, the whole school has to change? That's insane, but that's Kalifornia. It would be called mass punishment anywhere else, but in a place that worships at the altar of Diversity, Inclusion and We Feel Your Painism, it's SOP. The real problem is that as Kalifornia goes, so goes the nation eventually.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[blackdog]

If I lived in that district, I'd take my kid, find a physician for hire to document that my child is allergic to most everything but peanut butter. Then I would sit back and watch the school find a solution to that one.

AFWIW, that kid is going to suffer more from intense beatings from the peanut deprived student body than from any incidental contact with peanut residue. Childhood justice among peers is absolute.

[MadelineZapeezda]

I don't know when these allergies became so severe for these children but they have. My cousin's child had a severe reaction requiring a trip to the ER from p.butter.
He also broke out in severe hives to his face and neck from eating PLAIN m&m's because they carried some residue from the peanut ones that they make in the same machines.

[Protagoras]

Abolish government schools. Problem solved.

[mr.pink]

Me and my 3 brothers brown bagged PB&J sandwiches 4 days a week k through 11th...and it wasn't because we loved `em, it was because it was the healthiest of economical choices.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Yes, and my son went to Pre-K, when his sister was a year old, and she had RSV, and he came home with a virus, first he had an intestinal bug, and that changed into a respiratory infection, and then we were all concerned about touching the baby. My unfortunate son missed seven days of school, then... because he had contracted two different viral infections, one on top of the other.

If I kept my son out of school like I did last year, he would miss many days of school, again. And, I cannot do that, because if he misses more than twelve this year, he can be held back a year.

Now, I will qualify my earlier statement, that I only send him to school if it is just a low-grade fever, he is not uncomfortable and if there are no other symptoms. A fever, combined with even a sore throat, or a runny nose and we go to the doctor. And, yes... I do pick him up from school, should they say he is feeling worse.

He has just started his third year in school, and I think he has missed a total of thirty days during that time period. The viruses just run rampant, no matter if I keep him home, or not.

[eno_]

But I'm still puzzled as to why this is suddenly a grave health problem all of a sudden.

Might have something to do with the "training" scam, the 30hr./wk. aide, etc.

[RonF]

Intense scrutiny of many ailments in young adults can be traced back to single child families. These single child families kept their cherished child spotless. No dirt, worms, letting the dog eat cereal out of their mouth, every cut cleaned, creamed, bandaged, every piece of fruit washed, and so on.........Specifically multiple sclerosis is one of them.

I've seen this in 2 and 3 child families as well. After that, it's just too impossible to keep up with, unless you have professional help.

[ridesthemiles]

Welcome to the real world......
Where were you guaranteed the following?: Never to be sick
Never to have a sick spouse
Never to have a sick offspring
Never to have a sick dog
Never to have a sick horse
Never to miss a day of work due to being sick
Never to have a flat tire
Never to take a wrong turn
Never to be late for anything
Never to forget an appointment
Never to forget something at the grocery store
Never to have a recipe turn out poorly
Never to have any interruption in your carefully planned life? Planned , of course, in an annual $75 "planner".
Sometimes I absolutely marvel at my parents and my generation:
No airbags
No seat belts
No mandatory helmets on bicycles
No helmets on Flexy Flyer sleds
No "expiration dates" on everything- including soda cans
No "Northstar" in our cars
No cell phones
No electronic games to keep us amused-we played OUTSIDE!
No air conditioning everywhere
I could go on and on. Those of us over 30 know what I mean. I wouldn't trade being raised on a farm-REAL DIRT!- and feeding cows, horses, chickens, pigs, etc for ANYTHING. Went to a one room school. Ate LOTS of peanut butter.
Interesting comment about the connection to super clean kids and MS. I have a similar theory about air conditioning. Either we are creating an artificial environment with air conditioning everywhere or the doctors sure were stupid 40 years ago and they never diagnosed very many cases of asthma! Rant over -for now.

[eno_]

IMHO many of the parents of the kids like peanut boy have some serious mental problems. They are acting out some sort of ritual for reasons only rich white females with no sense of balance in their life can share after thirty years of professional counseling.

JESUS ON A FRISBEE if you could cure that every middle aged married guy in the U.S. would kiss the ground you walk on. A '78 Alfa Romeo cured my midlife crisis. If only it was that simple for women.